Happy New Year

More and more goodness!

So, China was a wonderful experience and I will post more pictures soon, but I flew from China to the opening of my first museum exhibition at the Loyola Unversity Museum of Art. There is a great exhibition of creches from around the world in the main area of the museum, which is well worth seeing! I had no idea they could be so interesting as art objects. Also, as a treat, the "Off The Streets Club Children's Choir" sang Christmas carols and other songs.




My show got reviewed, which was totally unexpected and so kind. You can read it here:

Anyhow, if I don't post again, have a Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Beautiful Kwanza or enjoyable three day weekend!

Peace,
Sarah

More China photos

China

I will start with China, which was an incredible experience. I don't think I had any idea what it would be like, so it was a bit like Alice going down the rabbit hole. I was up for the adventure, but also a little daunted by what I'd read beforehand about the difficulties of getting around, but it turned out to be a lot easier than I imagined.

I arrived in Shanghai (and yes, 13 hours is a long time on a plane) on Thanksgiving night and thanks to the kindness of friends of friends, I was picked up by a driver and taken to a Thanksgiving meal with about 8 mostly American ex-pats. Dinner was delicious and conversation about life in Shanghai very interesting.

Woke the next morning and took some shots of the sun rising over the sky scrapers.

Life is beautiful

Life has been spinning so fast, but suddenly I have two weeks of breathing space and I am enjoying myself. Filter Photo, the portfolio review I organized in Chicago, was a success and I met so many inspiring and eager photographers and the reviewers were all spectacular. We are planning even a bigger event for next year, but thankfully have plenty of time to plan it all.

I also delivered all my prints to the Loyola University Museum of Art for the show which opens December 3rd, and I am so immensely proud and excited for that to take place.

Now, I am getting ready for China which will be an incredible adventure. I am part of the Lishui International Photography Festival along with 40 other American photographers.

I am trying to just relax and take it all in. Trying to accept that I am on the right path and that things will unfold and that life is beautiful.

Ragdale

Four years ago, I applied to Ragdale, this artist and writers colony in Lake Forest, IL and by some miracle, they accepted me. I was intimidated as everyone else seemed so accomplished. Nevertheless, I had a blissful two weeks. I photographed all the time and felt what it was like to be a real artist - one who gets up and creates every day. I had my own studio and great conversations with people at dinner and went for long walks on the prairie and really got into the swing of things, into flow, as they call it, when the creativity is just moving through you. When I left, I was practically kicking and screaming, it had been such an amazing experience.

Now, here I am four years and three residencies later, a lot closer to my ideal life of being a real artist, and yet it is still magical to be here surrounded by so much creativity. I love having my own studio with a loft bedroom and endless hours to shoot and contemplate my work, and I love even the little things here - hearing the screen doors slam and seeing the chipmunks scurry under trees and the pears fall on the path when I go for walks. It really is a wonderful place and one that has become part of my life.

I will be giving a talk about my work on Friday, which scares me, but I know it will go fine and I have been asked to shoot inside the main house for a book the Director of Ragdale is writing and I feel so honored and excited. I feel like I embraced Ragdale and it embraced me back.

Finding confidence!

Back in 2000, there was this amazing photo project called "Chicago in the year 2000" which hired photographers from all over the city to document the entire year. I applied to shoot alternative medicine in the city, but was so nervous and unsure on myself, I hardly took any photos and was terrified to have them seen and edited. Now, I see the photos in the archive and think they are wonderful. I wish I had had the confidence back then. It just goes to show, you do know what you are doing, even when you think you don't.

You can see more of the project at The Comer Archive, University of Illinois. This is a photo of a woman getting an acupuncture face lift!

Filter Photo 2009

I am very excited to announce Filter Photo, the Midwest's first large scale photo reviews, which will be held on Saturday, October 31st, and Sunday, November 1st, from 9am to 5pm at Loyola University's Crown Center Gallery in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood. Filter Photo's mission is to bring together fine art and documentary photographers with the Midwest's top gallerists, educators, curators, photo editors, and photo professionals.

Please check out the website www.Filterphoto.org for more information and please pass this on to other photographers who you think might be interested in attending!

Hope to see you there!

Lishui Photo Festival

I am going to China in November as part of the Lishui Photo Festival. I will be showing photos from my new series - The Water's Edge. Here is an image from that series. You can see the rest of the series on my website.

We went downtown to the Art walk last night and it was so cool to see the streets teaming with people. Normally downtown LA is a little sketchy, but it was alive last night and there was art everywhere. I was waiting for Rob's comedy show to start and walking around with my camera. I haven't just done some street shooting in ages and it was really fun because the light was bouncing from all over. This guy caught me pointing my camera at him and he grabbed the girl and posed. She looks so amazingly young and vulnerable. I just love it.

Santa Monica pier at sunset

Santa Monica pier at sunset, originally uploaded by mind the light.

Crawfish on a Pancake

We go to Michigan every year with my husband's college friends. The house is just down the street from Lake Huron. They have an old black raft in the garage which we have been using forever. Some years ago, my husband dubbed the game of trying to shake the kidlets off the raft "Crawfish on a Pancake" I think because we had had a fabulous crawfish dinner the night before. The name stuck and here it is in print in Light Leaks magazine. Though here Stella looks more contemplative.

Unconscious Terrain

Unconscious Terrain, originally uploaded by mind the light.

I have posted a new project to my website. It is called "Unconscious Terrain" and deals with the dark and mysterious crevices of our beds.

My tribute to Michael Jackson

Here it is, my record player from the 70s found at a street sale in Italy. We had "ABC" by the Jackson 5 and we'd play it over and over again endlessly. I just listened to it on youtube and it is still magical!

Calming

I find photography a very calming meditative activity. Sometimes if I am stressed out or on unfamiliar ground, I pick up my camera like a weapon. If I am feeling shy, I can always hide behind this shield. It makes me feel invincible - like a spy with knowledge and power.

This was taken at my Mother's house, in her bedroom.

Paris Light

Rob getting ready

Rob getting ready, originally uploaded by mind the light.

What is Happiness?

A friend sent me this article from the NYT after we'd had a similar discussion. He meditates a lot, and we discussed if that leads to greater happiness and good in the world. He said meditation enabled him to deal with the problems and discomforts of daily life with more ease. I believe that. Now I just need to put that belief into action.

Here is the article (not sure how long it will be up so I will excerpt a bit)

Happy Like God

By Simon Critchley

What is happiness? How does one get a grip on this most elusive, intractable and perhaps unanswerable of questions?

I teach philosophy for a living, so let me begin with a philosophical answer. For the philosophers of Antiquity, notably Aristotle, it was assumed that the goal of the philosophical life — the good life, moreover — was happiness and that the latter could be defined as the bios theoretikos, the solitary life of contemplation. Today, few people would seem to subscribe to this view. Our lives are filled with the endless distractions of cell phones, car alarms, commuter woes and the traffic in Bangalore. The rhythm of modern life is punctuated by beeps, bleeps and a generalized attention deficit disorder.

But is the idea of happiness as an experience of contemplation really so ridiculous? Might there not be something in it? I am reminded of the following extraordinary passage from Rousseau’s final book and his third (count them — he still beats Obama 3-to-2) autobiography, “Reveries of a Solitary Walker”:

If there is a state where the soul can find a resting-place secure enough to establish itself and concentrate its entire being there, with no need to remember the past or reach into the future, where time is nothing to it, where the present runs on indefinitely but this duration goes unnoticed, with no sign of the passing of time, and no other feeling of deprivation or enjoyment, pleasure or pain, desire or fear than the simple feeling of existence, a feeling that fills our soul entirely, as long as this state lasts, we can call ourselves happy, not with a poor, incomplete and relative happiness such as we find in the pleasures of life, but with a sufficient, complete and perfect happiness which leaves no emptiness to be filled in the soul. (emphases mine)

This is as close to a description of happiness as I can imagine.

Paris street

_MG_0006_man, originally uploaded by mind the light.

double exposed image from Michigan

double exposed, originally uploaded by mind the light.

One of my new Venice images which will be exhibited at Mars Gallery in Chicago in June. For more info go to my website news.

I took this image of my hairdresser's scissors. I just loved the teeth on them.

rob_MG_6143

rob_MG_6143, originally uploaded by mind the light.

Ireland

We went to Ireland for a week in between packing and moving to California. It was so beautiful and just like what you would expect - green fields, cows and ponies, and pubs galore all painted pretty colors.

We stopped at this hippy cafe with a caravan and trampoline out back on the way to Dingle (I did bounce on their trampoline) and they told us we had to stop at Inch Beach. It was a beautiful large expanse of sand and mountains and I took this photo. (Hint: if you click on the image, you'll see a larger version of it)